Handheld cigarette making machines are used to economically and efficiently fill empty filter-tipped cigarette tubes with tobacco. Since smokers typically prefer cigarettes (and use corresponding empty cigarette tubes) in two different filter lengths which result in two different tobacco-receiving portion lengths or in two different overall cigarette tube lengths, various approaches have been suggested to enable handheld cigarette making machines to accommodate the different tobacco-receiving portions of the tubes. These approaches are typically implemented in handheld machines that are complex and expensive to manufacture and use since it has been universally believed in the past that it is necessary to adjust the length of the cavity for receiving tobacco, the length of the tamper for compressing tobacco in the machine, and the length of the movement or throw distance of the device on filling a cigarette tube to correspond to different tube tobacco-receiving portion lengths.
If an easy to manufacture and use handheld cigarette-making machine that uses a single throw distance and a single tamper length to accommodate at least two different cigarette tube tobacco-receiving portion lengths could be developed, an important advance in the art would be at hand. Embodiments of the present invention comprise such easy to manufacture and use handheld cigarette making machines using a single throw distance and a single tamper length. These and other features and advantages are evident from the following description of embodiments of the invention, with reference to the accompanying drawings.